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The first day of the draft has come and gone and while usually it can be the more exciting of the days, for Padres fans it was a little rough. It took 4 hours and 15 minutes of waiting for the Padres to select Austin Smith 51st overall. Although today's picks won't be as high profile as the 1st and 2nd rounders, what it lacks in quality it makes up for in quantity. We have rounds 3-10 today at 10am and that means 8 new Padres prospects.
Yes, the players selected today will be prospects. Last year's 3rd round pick Zech Lemond is quality prospect with the Lake Elsinore Storm and is joined there by another one of the Padres top prospects in 2012 3rd round pick Fernando Perez. 2014 5th round pick Auston Bousfield might be the Storm's best hitter this season and 7th rounder Ryan Butler was their best pitcher until his promotion to AA. Last year's 10th round pick Thomas Dorminy was just selected to the Midwest League All Star Game. Other day 2 picks have been key to many of the trades the Padres have made over the years like 2012 5th rounder Mallex Smith (Justin Upton trade), 2011 7th rounder Matt Wisler (Craig Kimbrel trade) and 2013 7th rounder Jake Bauers (Wil Myers trade). Current Padres Will Venable and Kevin Quackenbush were 7th and 8th round picks respectively.
So, let's kick back and take in the fruits of the scouting staffs labors while chatting a little.